Thursday, July 21, 2016

(PORTLAND, OR) – The
Bonneville Power Administration has selected Michelle Mizumori Cathcart to be
its vice president of Transmission System Operations. She will begin her new
position Aug. 8.

“Michelle is a results-driven leader with impressive
electric power industry experience and academic credentials,” said Richard
Shaheen, senior vice president for Transmission Services. “She’s a great
addition to the BPA transmission team, as well as an outstanding talent to
oversee the operations of Bonneville’s transmission system and tackle all of
the complexities of delivering electric power today.”

As leader of BPA’s Transmission System Operations
organization, Mizumori Cathcart will oversee the safe, reliable and open access
operation and dispatch of BPA’s high-voltage transmission system and
interconnected generation. The group also operates and manages BPA’s two
regional control centers and represents the agency on operations and other
coordination issues with the Northwest Power Pool, California Independent
System Operator, PacifiCorp and other balancing authorities and system
operators. She succeeds Randi Thomas, who has led the organization since 2006
and is retiring this summer.

“I am thrilled to join BPA and lead a team of professionals
dedicated to Bonneville’s mission of delivering reliable power and services to
the customers and communities we serve,” Mizumori Cathcart said.

Most recently, Mizumori Cathcart served as the director of
strategy and organizational performance at Peak Reliability, a reliability
coordinator that provides situational awareness and real-time monitoring of the
bulk electric systems of 14 western states, British Columbia, and the northern
portion of Baja California, Mexico. Before assuming that role, she oversaw
Peak’s real-time operations and training as the director of operations.

Prior to arriving at Peak, Mizumori Cathcart served as the
managing director of operations and market interface at the Western Electricity
Coordinating Council, a regional entity responsible for compliance monitoring
of bulk electric system reliability in the Western Interconnection. She spent
the early part of her career at Madison Gas and Electric Company where she led
the Wisconsin utility’s participation in the Midwest Independent System
Operator and the Midwest Contingency Reserve Sharing Group, and was responsible
for purchased power agreements and operator training.

Mizumori Cathcart has a doctorate of Philosophy in Geography
and Environmental Engineering from Johns Hopkins University, a master’s of
Business Administration from Washington State University and a bachelor’s of
Science in Engineering from Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania.

The court battle over the Obama administration's contentious
Waters of the U.S. rule kicks off today when plaintiffs make their case to the
6th Circuit Court of Appeals about what documents should be admitted in the
trial. The administrative record may sound like a bureaucratic backwater, but
in a case that's heavily weighted with Administrative Procedures Act claims,
documents showing how the agencies made key decisions about the rule could be
hugely influential.

One set of documents likely to come up in plaintiffs' brief:
internal memos from a top Army Corps general to an Obama-appointed policy boss raising
concerns about changes made in the final version of the rule and arguing his
agency was cut out of the process. The memos argue that the rule, also called
the Clean Water Rule, would shrink federal jurisdiction rather than expand it -
as state and industry groups argue - but raise process issues that could have
their desired effect of overturning the rule.

But will the fight stay in the 6th? Even as they're off and
running before the 6th Circuit, plaintiffs are still making their case that the
challenges should first go through district court. The 11th Circuit Court of
Appeals, which is weighing an appeal from Georgia and 10 other states of a
lower court's rejection of their preliminary injunction request, is slated to
hear arguments today on whether it should take up the case. Meanwhile,
Oklahoma's attorney general has filed his own appeal on the same issue after a
district court dismissed his challenge to the rule.

About Me

Joel Myer works at an electrical utility in Washington State.
Prior to his current employment, he worked for nine years at the City of Shelton as Special Projects Coordinator.
In 1992, Joel served a three-month term as an appointed Mason County Commissioner. As far as it is known, he still holds the record for the shortest term for a county commissioner in Washington State.
From 1991 through 1992 Joel worked with Washington State University Cooperative Extension, where he conducted an extensive study of the special forest products industry and its economic value to the Pacific Northwest.
From 1980 to 1991 he was News Director at KMAS Radio in Shelton.
Joel is a 1991 graduate of the Evergreen State College, where his focus of study was economics.
Joel Myer is one of the 2018 award winners, Foundation for Water & Energy Education Haiku Contest.
He has been teaching himself to play the ukulele (with limited success) since 2003.